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Prufrock: Dust flies in Woolworths asbestos row

IT’S been several months since Apax, the private-equity firm, ended its courtship of Woolworths by publicly implying that something was decidedly smelly about the retailer.

Although investors and analysts appear convinced that there is no black hole in Woolies’ accounts, I can reveal there is an ugly surprise in store after all. Woolies and a contractor are being accused by Devon county council of endangering staff and the public by exposing them to poisonous fibres in asbestos panels.

The council’s health-and-safety experts say strict asbestos-removal rules were ignored at stores in Tiverton and Bideford in April.

It is alleged that asbestos- removal firm LCH simply tore down the panels without creating a safe vacuum, causing poisonous dust to fall on products, which staff unwittingly cleared up. Woolies, along with LCH, faces a long and expensive row